A Thousand Beautiful Things

Chapter Fifteen

By: Sharl/zielddhy

The clock was ticking.

Kangin sighed, he was dying to get out of here but his father had specifically requested him to wait in the office.He checked his watch. That was almost five hours ago. His father was never punctual so this shouldn’t be surprising. But this still pissed the hell out of him. He could be doing other things, like practicing martial arts and gun skills but no, he had to stay in this damn office and waited. There’s nothing he hated more than waiting.

One hour later, Kangin gave up on waiting. All phone calls towards his father went unanswered. A quick check to one of the main members, Jaejoong, confirmed that his father was in a meeting with potential client and he was old enough to understand that ‘potential client’ meant that ‘potential victim.’

Whomever was meeting with his father would be dead soon.

Surprisingly, what really pissed him off wasn’t that he had to wait for nothing or that his father didn’t bother to tell Kangin to cancel their appointment (again, this wouldn’t be the first time). Instead it was the fact that his father was a Don.

Kangin didn’t know when it started, maybe it was around the time when he realized that his father and the other members were torturing someone. Or maybe it’s when he found out what pear of anguish truly was. Either way, he hated it. The tortures, the secrecy, the home tutors and strict rules, the heavy securities that surround him… They were all just something hindered him to experience anything his life as normal teenager.

Oh he knows how normal teenagers can be. Going with friends to the same school, hanging out after class, ing about teachers they don’t like, he wanted to experience them all. But instead he was stuck here in the Kim Family mansion, getting home schooled with other teenagers who were all his boots, so to speak. Well, except Kyuhyun and Siwon; those two were his only real friends, although Kyuhyun was so just so weird sometimes.

And then there was also his eccentric cousin, Heechul and that Chinese guy who lived in his house. Kangin had never met the Chinese one, but Heechul’s father seemed intrigued and even said that the Chinese kid would be a valuable member of the Family one day. The way he joked about it, that it would happen during Kangin’s years probably, brought a frown to Kangin. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want any new kid, any member or even this Family. He didn’t want to lead.

His father had done an amazing job at that and unless his father was killed, there was no way Kangin would succeed his position. And so Kangin hadn’t seek out the Chinese kid yet, or ever maybe. He’d leave that job to welcome the kid to someone else.

And yet as much as he wanted to deny the Kim Family and its existence, Kangin’s father made sure that Kangin was taught everything to prepare him to be the next Don. He was given negotiation lessons, how to read people just from their expression and body language, how to analyze a business and made it profitable with the shortest time possible, and most importantly how to defend himself with martial arts and firearms.

He had to admit, he liked the guns and martial arts, because come on, they were kind of cool. He also knew they were important. Despite the heavy securities that literally surrounded him constantly, Kangin got his first death threat when he was six, got his first bomb when he was eleven.

But still, he hated his father’s life. He didn’t want any part of it.

Kangin stood up and walked out from his father’s office. The old man could seek him himself if he needed Kangin and if he thought Kangin would’ve waited him longer, the man was sorely mistaken. So he went out and looked for Siwon. He could use some company to shoot some bullets, an activity that gave most satisfaction when you’re thoroughly pissed off.

He found the training ground soon enough. Nobody was there except for few senior members, but at one corner, Siwon was shooting blanks. Putting up the necessary eye and ear protections, Kangin then walked towards his friend. He stayed back and watched Siwon for a while.

Siwon was good. Out of the six blanks he had in his gun, two of them hit the target bulls eye. For someone who just learnt how to handle guns few months ago, this was pretty good. Siwon must’ve spent every waking moment practicing, to make up for the loss time so that he could catch up with Kangin.

A competitive adrenaline rushed in Kangin’s veins. He grabbed his gun, picked his bull’s eye target and began to shot. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Siwon had stopped and was now watching him. Somehow, that just made Kangin became more competitive. He kept focusing on the target. Six blanks later, he was done. The machine whirled and the target was moved forward.

There were six blanks Kangin had just shot, but there were only two holes on the target, each hit dead center.

“Show off,” Siwon said teasingly. Six blanks only produced two holes, which meant Kangin managed to shoot three blanks exactly through each hole. Kangin was good with guns. No, he was amazing with guns and Siwon knew that.

Kangin smirked. “Just to show you how it’s supposed to be done.”

Siwon laughed out loud. “One blank for each hole is enough if we hit the right place, whoever we’ll be shooting will be dead by then.”

“True.”

Siwon smiled, dimples appearing on his handsome face. He knew that Kangin was supposed to have a meeting with the Don, but for whatever reasons, he was here instead. Most probably the Don cancelled again and Kangin was feeling pissed off. Deciding not to agitate his friend further, Siwon took off his headphone and protector, and slung an arm around the young heir. “Come on, now that you’ve showed me how to shoot blanks, let’s get something to eat.”

With that, the two young friends went their way. All thoughts and initial anger at being ignored by his father flew away from Kangin’s mind. Little did he know, his father had a very good reason for making him wait; because the man was already dead.

*****************************

There were pretty little China cups filled with Chinese Liquor and teas on the table. Small plates filled with foods that usually looked appetizing, but somehow Yunho had no appetite this time. In fact he couldn’t focus on anything. The whole thing was just surreal. Finding Xiah again was like in a dream, but finding him dressing up as a woman was downright mind blowing; not in a good way though. Thousands of questions ran through Yunho’s mind: Why? How? What the had happened with Xiah?

Yunho grabbed his phone and punched few numbers. It was picked up after the second ring. “Kyuhyun, I need everything you have on Xiah.”

“The one before he disappeared? You got it.”

“No, the one after he disappeared.”

“What the hell, man? You know there’s nothing we can find on Xiah after he disappeared, or else Changmin would’ve found him years ago.”Kyuhyun’s voice sounded impatient. Yunho knew then that Kangin must’ve chewed him and Ryeowook real good. And all of this stress over Kibum was piling up on each of the members.

But he needed to get this done. They needed to find Kibum, even when –quoting Kangin– even if Kibum was dead they were going to drag his ing corpse here and give him a ing proper funeral. The guy deserved that. They owed it to him.

“There’s this brothel/ service in Hong Kong that we’re in now, the Golden Lotus. I need you and Ryeowook to look into every single here and find out whatever you can on them. Look for their photos, you’d find Xiah amongst them.”

There was a dead silence from the other side for a moment. Then Kyuhyun’s voice filtered through, “So he’s really there, huh? Is he alright?”

“I don’t know,” Yunho answered, “Just find him for me okay? And quick, I don’t know how long we have before he meets us here. Oh and Kyuhyun,” he added before cutting off the line, “look under female employees. He keeps the female persona here.”

He snapped the phone shut. Whatever Kyuhyun said or protested or shocked about, Yunho didn’t get to hear it. He wasn’t ready to hear more questions because well, he didn’t understand the answers himself. Hell, he didn’t even understand anything at all. Asking Kyuhyun to search for Xiah was a good starting point to get a clue about him, how he lived these past years. Yunho tried not to wince when he thought about what kind of jobs and how many clients Xiah must have had.

The guy was beautiful as a female, heck he was gorgeous. And Yunho knew enough from his experiences handling The Kim Family’s clubs businesses to understand that the number of males who liked their counterparts as another males who dressed up as females were quite a few. Judging from how long Xiah had disappeared, he had stayed in the Golden Lotus long enough to build a good clientele base and loyalties from his clients.

The question was though, how would Changmin take this? Yunho shot a quick glance to the researcher, and

Yunho decided not to think about that now. There must be something else, a reason why Xiah was dressing up as females, but right now they didn’t have time for that. Their first priority was to find Kibum, no matter what Changmin felt. A job was a job and the Don’s orders must be obeyed. He said get Xiah to help them, not to dig Xiah’s past.

“Why the hell Kangin didn’t tell us?” Hangeng suddenly asked, “He must’ve known that Xiah dresses up as a ing female here.”

Yunho sighed. “My guess is that Kangin doesn’t think it’s necessary to inform us. Either as a female or as a male, we still need Xiah’s help, and right now that’s our main priority. Everything else be damned until Kangin orders otherwise.” His strong voice resonated in the lavishly decorated room and Yunho knew his words carried the orders. Although he had just rejoined the Kim Family again, his seniority and experiences still outrank everyone in the room.

Nobody spoke for few minutes, and it was a good thing to, because when Xiah opened the door, they didn’t hear his footsteps. He was still as silent as he used to be, clearly working in this place hadn’t affected his skills.

Xiah bowed deeply to them. His traditional cheongsam was a color of pearly white with light purple embroidery, and it was tight enough to hug his figure. His s were small but still very noticeable and Yunho tried not to think at how real his s were.

“Good day, gentleman, I am told that you requested my presence. I have a client that comes earlier than expected, and so I must apologize for not being able to accompany today. My sisters will come to tend to your needs later.”

When he looked up, there was no hint of recognition or anything on his face. If Yunho hadn’t known Xiah for so long, he’d think the man had amnesia. But Xiah was a master of disguise and acting. He might got the biggest shock of his life and yet shown nothing.

Xiah walked over to them, his steps were light and small, just like courtesans. “Oh my,” he let out a small laugh, “I see you haven’t started eating. Mama told me that you are tourists from Korea, and while you’re in Hong Kong, you should try our foods.” Even the way Xiah spoke was accented, like he was not accustomed to speak Korean or that he hadn’t spoken Korean in long time.

Yunho watched as Xiah placed one of the egg tarts on a small plate in front of him, then a small pork bun in front of Hangeng and Changmin. He then poured some tea and filled each Chinese cups. His face was expressionless aside from the calming smile on his face. “Morning will arrive soon, and consider this as a snack before breakfast.”

“Thank you,” Yunho managed to say. He had to tread carefully. Xiah acted like he didn’t know them and so Yunho wouldn’t be the first to drop the hints. They needed Xiah’s cooperation and like Kangin said, he didn’t accept failure, not this time. Xiah was their only way to contact the Lee Family without the Choi noticed it.

“You’re welcome. Now please, do try our foods.”

Yunho and Hangeng picked their plates, but Changmin didn’t move. He was staring at Xiah with a mix of sadness and concern, with a healthy bit of anger. Although Yunho imagined Changmin was angry at himself rather than at Xiah. Changmin would never, never, be angry at Xiah, he just couldn’t.

The egg tart was supposed to be delicious, but it tasted like a cardboard to Yunho. Judging from the way he saw Hangeng swallowed his pork bun, he probably felt the same. It was the stress. It had gotten to them, just like it had gotten Kyuhyun. They needed to get this done as soon as possible.

But just when he was about to say something, Changmin had beaten him to it, his voice barely a whisper. “Junsu, what happened to you?”

Yunho felt like banging his head on the table. Trust Changmin to be so damn tactless when it comes to Xiah. His renowned ability to stay calm in whatever situation, was nowhere to be found right now. Yunho still remembered the time when Kangin’s car was bombed and Changmin literally challenged the Don for getting roundabout way in explaining the bomb fragments. Where was that fearless, calming voice Changmin used?

To his credit, Xiah didn’t even blink. “My name is not Junsu, sir,” he replied with the same smile.

“The you’re not!”

“Changmin,” Hangeng growled. He moved his hands a bit and Yunho knew Hangeng was touching Changmin’s leg to calm him down. It seemed to work, because Changmin just scoffed and looked away, refusing to say anything else.

Yunho sighed and smiled at Xiah. “I’m sorry for that. You look like someone he knows and he was confused for a moment there.”

Xiah then laughed, putting his hand over his mouth as if he was embarrassed. Somehow the gesture brought a pang to Yunho’s heart. It was just so like Junsu, the gesture was so familiar. Junsu used to laugh like that, hiding his smile whenever he was feeling shy. And if Yunho missed that small gesture, he couldn’t imagine what it felt to Changmin. It must be so heart breaking; being so near with one you love the most and yet felt so far.

“It’s alright,” Xiah answered. “Now, Mama said that you’re requesting my presence. Is there anything I can help you with, gentleman?”

Yunho nodded. Well, this might be just mere politeness from Xiah, but this might be just the thing he needed. An invitation to see Xiah again, possibly sometime soon. “This might not be a good time to talk, as you need to go so soon. I’ll make an appointment.” He hated himself for saying that. An appointment? Though he almost said ‘booking’ and ‘booking’ was worse than appointment. Booking meant calling Xiah a , which technically he was.

Xiah blinked, and it was enough sign for Yunho to know that he wanted to refuse. But Yunho knew he had the upper hand here. By saying he would make an appointment, it signified that he wasn’t giving Xiah a choice. Xiah was bound with a contract in this brothel house, and he could not refuse a guest, especially if an appointment had been made beforehand.

He nodded and bowed, the same, polite smile still on his face. “I will wait for your coming then. Now, if you will excuse me, I have clients to attend.” He then stood up, filled each cups with more tea before leaving the room with one last bow. If he saw Changmin’s hands tightened into fists at the mention of ‘clients’ Xiah barely reacted.

Only fifteen seconds after Xiah left, Changmin pounded the table and groaned. “ this whole thing, them!”

“Changmin, calm down,” Hangeng said in firm tone.

“He became this…this abomination because of something I did!”

“That’s part of the job, you know this. You ought to know better than asking something out of the blue like that. You almost cause us our only chance to save Kibum,” Yunho almost snapped at the young genius. “Now tell me whether you can do this job or not.”

Changmin took a deep breath. He didn’t speak for a while and Yunho let him be, knowing he needed the time to recomposed himself. But when Changmin finally lifted his head, there were tears b in his eyes. He looked at Yunho and whispered, “I don’t think I can, hyung.”

***************************

Kangin drew the last drag from his cigarette and snubbed the cancer stick out. Jungsu would be here soon and even though the kid had smoked before, Kangin would rather not have him started on smoking as well. Although he didn’t think that Jungsu was still so innocent as to have not tried smoking before.

He had called Jungsu to his office earlier, needing to feel the reassurance that the teenager was actually okay. Jungsu just had one of his best friends sent him bloodied fingers of Kibum’s and that wasn’t the best way to introduce him to the life of Kim Family. Even though Jungsu wasn’t a complete stranger to that either. Maybe it was only the selfish side on Kangin’s part to keep him out of the loop for just one moment longer.

There was a knock on the door. Kangin contemplated his plan one last time. This was it. This was the point of no return. After this conversation, there was no way Jungsu’s life would remain the same. It depended on Jungsu himself, but most likely the teenager would be forced to be home-schooled, just like Kangin did. Jungsu could kiss the normal life goodbye.

Kangin loathed doing this to him, but there was no other way. Jungsu had to cooperate. Another knock came on the door, this time more persistent. “Come in,” Kangin said finally.

The door opened and Jungsu walked in, followed by Yoohwan. The Don nodded towards his subordinate, silently giving his thanks to Yoohwan and asking him to leave. Yoohwan lowered his gaze and closed the door behind him.

“Have you eaten?” Kangin asked as Jungsu sat down.

The high school student nodded. “Yes, Jaejoong-hyung made me some kimbap and japchae earlier.”

“Good,” he said approvingly, “Now I won’t beat around the bush. Are you alright?”

Jungsu didn’t answer immediately and Kangin didn’t expect him to. He watched as Jungsu looked sideways. There was a troubled look on his face, but Jungsu wasn’t shaking. Maybe that was a good sign. Maybe he wasn’t that disturbed by the sight of that bloody present.

“Whose fingers are those?” The question was softly whispered and Kangin almost missed it. The Don frowned. He didn’t like the dejected tone on his charge’s voice. It was as if Jungsu was afraid to know the answer though Kangin couldn’t understand the reason. Why would he be afraid?

“It was Kibum’s, one of our Family members,” answered the Don finally.

“Have I ever met him?”

Kangin shrugged. “I don’t think so, why?”

“So why did… Top was it, Top send his fingers to me? For what purpose? What did he want from me?” Jungsu looked at Kangin. As those brown eyes stared at him, The Don found himself remembering a time when he found Jungsu for the first time under that bunker. And like always, awave of protectiveness went through Kangin. Every time he looked at Jungsu, Kangin always felt that way, as if he didn’t want anything bad happened to this boy.

But was Jungsu still a boy? He looked surprisingly calm right now, considering he was literally screaming when he saw those fingers. But now? Jungsu didn’t throw a fit anymore, he wasn’t crying, he wasn’t sobbing. Instead he only appeared to be genuinely curious.

“I don’t know,” replied Kangin truthfully.

Jungsu nodded. “Alright. We’ll know more later, I suppose.” He then stood up, walked towards the windowpane and gazed outside. It was still dark and Kangin knew that Jungsu wasn’t looking at the scenery. The boy was composing his mind.

“Jungsu-“

“Hyung,” the teenager cut him off, “I have a request.”

Kangin blinked, not expecting Jungsu to speak first. Kangin wanted to tell the boy something, that now he was already indirectly involved, he couldn’t stay ignorant anymore. There were things to be done, lessons to be learned. But Jungsu said he had a request. The Don then nodded to signal that he was listening.

What he heard next surprised him. “I’ve given this a lot of thought. I want to quit school.” Jungsu now stared at him, his gaze wavered slightly but Kangin realized he was determined. “And I want to learn everything: guns, martial arts, computers, how we do our business, everything.”

Without giving Kangin a chance to speak, Jungsu continued. “I thank you for keeping me away from all this business for so long and I know that you, Jaejoong-hyung and Yunho-hyung meant well. I appreciate it, I really do. But I don’t want to be kept in the dark anymore. I mean, this is my family too. You guys are the only people I know and look at what my friends did in school: sending me bloodied fingers. They are not my friends. And because of that, I want to quit school.”

What Jungsu said clearly shocked Kangin. He wasn’t expecting this. He expected that he had to break the news to Jungsu in brisk manner, and the boy would cry and maybe throw a fit or two. He knew how much Jungsu loved school. But to hear him saying that he wants to quit school?

And the way Jungsu said my family, how we do our business,brought a surprising relief to Kangin. “When did you grow up so fast?” Kangin asked.

Then Kangin saw Jungsu smiled for the first time that day, a dimple appeared on his left cheek. A light blush colored his cheek at Kangin’s unspoken praise and agreement. At the moment, The Don knew everything was going to be just fine. The boy was braver and tougher than he looked. 

Although, he’s not a boy anymore,Kangin’s inner voice spoke, Look at him. He’s a young man. A beautiful and brave young man.

-End of Chapter Fifteen-

Author’s Note: Yes I'm back here on AFF. See my blog for grizzy horrible details. I'M BACK! Also, for those who want to read more about Kibum, I've written a background story about him. The link is here http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/744401/1